the romney campaign released a statement authenticating the tape saying, quote, governor romney was elaborating on what obama senior strategist david axelrod said about the obama campaign's effort to target key demographics, most specifically women. for the record, david axelrod said nothing like that. for their part republicans seemed very mad on his way out the door mr. romney has left them with this mess to clean up. iowa's republican governor, terry branstad, said this. quote, i don't think it's helpful. florida senator marco rubio said, quote, well, senator marco rubio according to journalists, quote, distanced himself. kelly ayotte weighed in on "andrea mitchell reports" today. >> i listened to the comments. i don't know what the context fully was. i don't agree with the comments. we have big challenges that need to be resolved as you know. >> so you're not comfortable with what you heard him say. >> no, i don't know the full context of them, but i don't agree with the comments. >> you know, nobody sounded quite as annoyed with mitt romney in these comments as louisiana governor bobby jin